Pennagram bypoll: UPA MPs from Tamil Nadu to meet CEC

A day after Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi accused the Election Commission of “partisan approach” in deferring Pennagaram bypolls in Tamil Nadu, DMK on Wednesday announced that UPA MPs from the state would meet CEC Navin Chawla on the byelection issue tomorrow.

DMK Parliamentary party leader T. R. Baalu will lead a delegation of MPs from Congress and Viduthalai Chiruthigal Katchi (VCK) to meet the CEC, the ruling DMK said.

Accompanying Mr. Baalu will be TNCC president and former MP K.V. Thankgabalu and VCK founder and MP Thol. Tirumavalavan, the party said in a statement.

On Tuesday, Mr. Karunanidhi had said frequent postponement of the Pennagaram assembly bypoll, initially slated for January 20, might lead to suspicion among people that the Election Commission was “biased” towards opposition AIADMK.

He was referring to PMK founder S. Ramadoss’s reported remarks that the EC was acting in a partisan manner after the by-election was further postponed following allegations of irregularities in voters’ list by some “friendly parties” of AIADMK. Mr. Karunanidhi had said the postponement might also create doubts about the EC’s ‘non-partisan’ functioning.

The EC had deferred the bypoll earlier as the campaign dates clashed with the Pongal festivities in January. Leaders of eight political parties in the state had approached the EC on February one, accusing ruling DMK of deleting names of 25,000 voters of the constituency and demanded that the electoral rolls be finalised only after considering the cases of these voters.